I have just seen that.
Skeptic said:
The problem with Oz is that he is uneven. Some of his books are simply poor.
" A Tale of Love and Darkness" was the first book of Oz that I have read. The reason might appear ridiculous; the Greek Left is using his books to bash Israel all the time that's why I avoided his books. My friend though when she read it, was shocked because she found in there stories similar to ones I have naratted to her about my childhood and she didn't believe. She had never told me that she didn't believe them , I wouldn't mind but still.
In that book Oz mentions that Sefardis were called waitors by the first inhabitats and the Askenazis because they were very polite and they used their professed politeness to show their glorious past in Europe. Western Politeness was considered a bad habit when Israel was established, a contradiction with the spirit of zionism as it was experienced in the kibbutz. I remember somebody calling me a waitress once just because I thanked him for giving me some directions in the streets. To be exact he asked me " Are you a Sefardic waitress and you thank me?"
I also remember that although my grandmother wore long sleeved shirt to hide the tattoo from the camp and also she had forbidden me to declare in public that I prefer the Arabic food to the jewish.Expressing political ideas was ok for my grandma but since food is the essence of existence and culture she took this criticism as treacherous attitude.
Oz has a similar scene where his father asks him not to admit in public that the food of the Arabs tasted better and he recalls some neighbours of his that were camp survivors and they were always silent because they couldn't stand the despise from their compatriots.
But Oz describes other things as well. The devotion of the Israeli people to knowledge and books, their willingness to built a democratic state, the total absence of hatred towards the Arabs, the poverty ( I remember once that a Greek told me that he thought that in Israel everybody was really rich), the restrictions, the young zionists. He describes a country that was built and sustained with a unique sense of devotion and passion.
Anyway. When she gave me the book, Oz was in Greece and he was on TV all the time. I was charmed and impressed by the way he defended his country's right to exist without offending anybody. He is a really good looking man but what impressed me most is that he didn't try to become popular although journalsts tried to make him admit that Israel commits the most great injustice on the globe. He refused that and he said that Israelis and Arabs will need less time to learn to live in peace than the Greeks and Turks needed.
I cried a lot while reading this book and I mean A LOT.
He deserves the nobel prize.
Yes! By all means.
He's not AS great a writer as Agnon was, but he has one great advantage of being "translatable" into English for those intersted in reading him. You simply cannot translate, for instance, S. Y. Agnon's "Tmol Shilshom" (literally, "the day before yesterday") without losing 90% of the work in the process.
This is a very astute comment. Maybe what makes his books translatable is that he communicates his ideas with building images. This is really useful because with images you talk about things it's difficult to.... talk.
Tell me, Cleo: I am reading the Greek classics in English translation. I am thinking of learning Greek solely for the purpose of being able to read them in the original. If they are as better in the original as, say, the bible is, it would be worth it.
Everytime I read that somebody wants to learn Greek I have mixed feelings of admiration and horror because Greek is REALLY difficult, no kidding.
BUT one of my closest friends who publishes The Classics has developed a methods for people to learn ancient greek. I will have to ask his if it's available in English.
As for your question. I think that I have mentioned before that I am having multiple cerebral orgasms everytime I read Thucidedes in the prototype. It's the definition of perfection. It's more difficult to read the Tragedies because it's the metre involved but reading Thucidedes or Plato ( Plato is more difficult because he uses a lot of antonyms)in the prototype is a pleasure.
Personally I find an equal pleasure when I read Cicero or Virgil ( my two favorite Latins ) in the prototype.
So, I am the last person to discourage you from learning Greek.
Start your thread; she's one of my favourites and insipired me to study literature seriously.
